Uses of the 1980 National Natality and Fetal Mortality Surveys for the assessment of obstetric technologies.

Because of the multipurpose utility of followback surveys, six Public Health Service (PHS) agencies including the Bureau of Health Care and Delivery Assistance (BHCDA) financially assisted the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), which conducted the 1980 National Natality Survey (NNS) and 1980 National Fetal Mortality Survey (NFMS). These are called "followback" surveys because NCHS uses mail questionnaires and telephone to follow back informants (mothers, hospitals, and attendants at delivery) and medical sources of radiation named by informants, identified on Certificates of Live Birth and Reports of Fetal Death from all 52 state and independent registration areas of the United States. Ten basic data applications have emerged from the 1980 NNS/NFMS, and this paper addresses these 10 purposes simultaneously, in relation to NNS/NFMS uses in assessing obstetric technologies. The five obstetric technologies that are the focus of this paper are: cesarean delivery, electronic fetal monitoring, ultrasound, X-ray, and amniocentesis--and are often examined in relation to maternal complications and conditions. Data on these technologies are highlighted with reference to each of the following 10 data applications of followback surveys: produce national estimates of unique information; establish trends; facilitate analytic and epidemiologic research; use followback surveys as anchor data bases; undertake parallel studies; link followback surveys together to calculate new vital rates; conduct comparative studies vis-à-vis other data sets; assess volume of medical care; evaluate quality of information on vital records; and generate synthetic estimates and need assessments. Finally, this paper discusses NCHS plans to measure obstetric technologies in the 1988 National Maternal and Infant Health Survey, which will include natality, fetal mortality, and infant mortality components.